Android can browse the Web faster than iPhone

Posted March 17, 2011 - 11:00
by
Raven Lovecraft

According to the results of a new independent test, Android 2.3 is able to load websites 52% faster than an iPhone running iOS 4.3.

Blaze Software performed thousands of field tests to determine the speed and reliability of mobile Internet browsing - a total of 45,000 tests - using the Google Nexus S and an iPhone 4 with the most up-to-date iPhone software. The tests were performed with each phone's respective built-in browser.

The tests involved repeatedly loading websites from Fortune's list of the 1,000 top sites, using both Wi-Fi and 3G connections. Of these individual sites, 84% loaded faster on Android.

A lof of focus in the mobile industry right now is 4G and which carrier is able to have the fastest Web browsing experience. However, a lot of it also has to do with the hardware. Neither the Nexus S nor the iPhone 4 is 4G capable, but they both run on the same 3G data network. These results would suggest that the phone itself is more important than which carrier you choose.

The study noted that when a website is optimized for mobile use, the iPhone responds well. Those sites loaded 39% faster than standard websites on the iPhone. On Android, mobile-optimized sites loaded 8% faster than standard sites, but that's because it already loaded the standard sites very quickly.

There is also some question as to whether the browser software is at issue. Android's built-in browser is made specifically for a mobile environment. Even though Google has referred to it as "Chrome Lite," it is a specifically tailored product for Android phones.

The iPhone, meanwhile, uses a browser that is much more similar to Apple's computer counterparts. The mobile Safari browser itself uses up more processing power than the Android browser, which may have an impact on website load times.